Zoom has temporarily disabled its GIPHY integration as part of its latest security updates, the company said.
“To ensure strong privacy protection for users, we’ve temporarily removed the GIPHY integration in Zoom Chat. Once additional technical and security measures have been deployed, we will re-enable the feature,” Zoom had said in a blog post.
The company had stated that it will temporarily disable the feature as part of its security updates that also include features such as screen sharing limitations, changes to muting and unmuting functions, and restricting logins from multiple devices for registered meetings.
The feature was disabled days after GIPHY had been acquired by social media giant Facebook. Facebook last week had announced that it had acquired the popular GIF website and is planning to integrate its GIF library to its photo-sharing app, Instagram. “GIPHY makes everyday conversations more entertaining, and so we plan to further integrate their GIF library into Instagram and our other apps so that people can find just the right way to express themselves,” Facebook wrote in an official blog post.
Multiple platforms including Twitter, Pinterest, Slack and Reddit rely on Giphy’s API for providing GIFs. Apple as well uses the platform for its iMessenger.
The social media giant in its official release had said that despite the acquisition, developers and other partners working with GIPHY’s APIs will continue to have access to its APIs.
This had raised privacy concerns among experts and authorities across the US. “Many companies, including some of Facebook’s rivals, rely on Giphy’s library of shareable content and other services, so I am very concerned about this proposed acquisition,” US lawmaker Amy Klobuchar had said as quoted by The Verge.
Both Zoom and Facebook have had multiple security issues in the past. Earlier this year, the video conferencing tool had already been under the scanner after allegations that it had been sharing user data with Facebook whether or not the user has a Facebook account.
Zoom has made multiple security and privacy updates since then.
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